As soon as he became the president of CBS News, Fred W. Friendly (1915-1998) decided to get rid of his main opponent, journalist Don Hewitt (1922-2009) who was an executive producer of the CBS Evening News.

Fred invited Don into his office and told him:

„Buddy, the Evening News are no longer for a man of your caliber. I am removing you from the position of executive producer but I intend to form a special unit with a camera crew, tape editors and whenever there’s a big story in the world, you will be able you to go on the scene and do a report.”

Hewitt was so exited with this decision and he immediately went to visit his friend CBS Vice President Bill Leonard to share with him the “good” news. When he told him about it, Bill Leonard said: